Sanctuary
by Little-dhamphir
Summary: Yassen finds John Rider's tortured son in the house of the man Yassen was paid to kill. How does Yassen cope to this situation as he stares at the unconcious boy lying at Yassen's feet? This story DOES contain some spoilers from the book: Russian Roulette by Anothey Horowitz. You've been warned.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys!

This was an idea that suddenly popped into my head. Quick to jot it down, I came up with this story. I was going to edit it, but I have been awake for over 24hours and am desperate need of sleep. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are due to the lack of sleep i am experiencing at the moment.

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It took about an hour to think and type it up! Hopefully it won't have too many errors as a result.

Please R&R!

- Little Dhamphir.

* * *

Yassen recounted the days' events and wondered how his latest job had gone so wrong. Of course, everything that had happened was beyond Yassen's control, but still, he had a big mess to clean up. Unfortunately! A few of his employees would have to be shot for their VERY serious mistakes they made. Yassen was furious about it all as he sat at his desk and made an attempt at damage control.

Yassen had his own organization formed a few months ago. Only a select few knew about the small terrorist group and those who did know, even fewer knew that Yassen was indeed still alive. Yassen preferred to keep it that way. He wasn't sure if Scorpia would try to rise one more time. Yassen was still trying to avoid them.

Absentmindedly, Yassen rubbed his chest where the bullet wound scar tissue resided. The bullet had certainly almost killed him - and for a moment it did. Somehow though, the paramedics brought him back to life long enough to have him rushed to a hospital nearby. Immediately, Yassen underwent surgery. It was there (in the operating room) that he flat lined twice more during the twelve hour surgery.

It was this thought that triggered a rather long flashback as he recounted the events that happened shortly before after he was pronounced stable by the American doctor who worked in the hospital at the time then and the nurses who completed their patient rounds on the post-op floor of the hospital. Then again, he never did recover on the post-op floor to begin with...

* * *

When the trauma surgeon completed the final stitch on Yassen's chest, the military immediatly had the assassin flown to a nearby British military hospital. MI6 needed to question the assassin (more like interrogate) first whilst the chained man healed in the patient bed. Strangely, MI6 never once saw him after he arrived at the military hospital.

Clever as Yassen was, he was able to predict the hospitals daily routine within the first three days of his stay there. On the third evening, he met a brand new nurse. All she knew was that Yassen was a dangerous man who was in serious trouble with the law. Not knowing just how dangerous he was, she uncuffed one of his hands when he complained about his wrist hurting. She thought that if she recuffed him, it would help relieve some pressure once the cuff was a little less tight.

The next thing the nurse knew his hand was on her neck. Using his thumb, he pierced the nail through her skin and showed his thumb inside her neck - slicing the carotid artery in the process. Blood gushed out of the poor nurse's neck. She would have screamed had she not been choked as he pulled the woman closer to the bed.

A strong wave of pain erupted in Yassen's chest. If it wasn't for the desperate situation he faced, he would have let go of her. Time was of the essence though and he knew this would be his only chance to escape. How he managed to keep a hold (only with one hand mind you) was a mystery even to him.

Soon the nurse ceased with her futile struggles. Even though the assassin was still in critical condition, he still was strong enough to kill as the dead nurse slumped forward onto his bed. He knew time was even more of the essence as he searched through her hair. He found was he was looking for when he pulled two bobby clips out of the dead woman's hair.

Quickly, he went to work unlocking his other wrist cuff. It seemed to take forever as Yassen worked with the bobby pin in an attempt to open the lock but was successful in the end.

Once his other hand was free, he sat forward on his bed and worked to unlock the ankle cuffs. Within a minute or two, he was a free man once more. Well... He was more free now than he was five minutes ago. He stood up slowly and stepped onto the the cold hospital floor as he began to think of his escape plan while pulling the multiple wires and needles out of his body.

He made sure to turn the machines off before he got out of the bed. It wouldn't do to well to have them sound out their alarms. He just prayed that the vital machines did not relay his vitals to the nurse's desk like some high tech hospitals now had.

Glancing around the room, Yassen saw the sharps container on the wall. Luck was on his side - the container was not locked back into the wall. Slowly a rudimentary plan fell into placed. Silently, he lifted the box out of its protected shelf and tipped it over. Multiple syringes fell out of it. Bending down, he picked up a few and sat them on a nearby table. Those would be his weapon at the moment.

He knew that once someone found that he had escaped, there would be a man hunt for the missing patient. With the keyword being PATIENT. Slowly, he bent down and picked up the nurse's black scrub top and pulled it off of her. He proceeded to put it on him. As luck you'll have it, the top was unisex and fit him fairly well. Then he pulled the scrub bottoms off her and put them on as well. He was rather shocked that she was the same height as him. This was a good thing for her shoes would probably fit him too. They somewhat did, but they were still tight on his foot.

The clothing change took maybe three minutes to complete. Yassen knew that five or more minutes had passed already as he picked up the seven syringes and deposited them in one of the many scrub pockets. Afterwards, he dragged her dead body into the adjoining bathroom that accompanied his small room. He hoped this would provide him a few extra seconds if the hospital staff assumed he went somewhere for diagnostic imaging. Then he thought to grab the three remaining used syringes off the floor.

'Might as well bring them all with you.' he thought in Russian. He put the empty biohazard sharps container back up in its original place. His reasoning was that people would think then that he was unharmed as he escaped the military hospital.

His chest throbbed with constant pain from all the exertion it was put through in the last ten or so minutes. Yassen simply ignored it as best as he could. Soon, the adrenalin would kick back in to alleviate the pain some if he needed to fight once more.

He strolled out into the hallway and walked towards the stairs. The nurses badge was clipped to the collar or his chest. He thought he would need it at some point and prayed that no one looked to closely at the picture on the badge.

Yassen passed a security desk on his way to the stairs. Turning his head slightly to the side, he peered into a nearby patients room - making it look like he was peering into the patient's room to check on them. This must have been normal behavior for the guards did not take notice of him as he pushed open the door nd made his way down the stairs that was marked for employee use only. Yassen did not notice the sign though.

It was then he realized that luck was once again on his side as he walked down the first flight of steps and came across a sign that said: Main Floor. He crossed the small landing and made a attempt to open the door. It was locked!

Silently, Yassen fumed to himself as he thought of what to do next. Then he remembered the nurses badge. He used it to open the door by swiping it in the card reader. Now he was able to open the door once he heard the door click, signaling that it had unlocked itself.

briefly, Yassen wondered if the medications he was on was clouding his ability to think of rapid decisions for it should not have taken half a minute or so to remember he had the nurse's badge clipped to the stolen scrub uniform. He should have thought to use the card sooner and wastedprecious seconds as a result. He decided he would scold himself later. Now was the time to be finding the hospitals main entrance.

As the door opened, he peered into the main lobby as he stepped out into it. Yassen was surprised to find only two military policemen at the front desk as he glanced around the room. It was his quick observations that he saw two doctors nearby make their way towards the entrance doors. They were heading out the front door. Yassen walked with a slow, but quick pace. He looked at his wrist and picked up his pace just a tad bit more.

* * *

One of the guards noticed Yassen as he glanced at his wrist. He then saw the male nurse pick up his speed just a little more. The guard determined that it was just another hospital employee who was in a hurry to get home as he observed Yassen leave the hospital with the other two doctors. The guard sighed to himself as he returned to his sudoku game on the computer screen in front of him. Nothing ever happened in the lobby of the military hospital that was secretly hidden in England.

Never did the guard think that a serial killer would be able to leave the hospital. How could the killer leave the hospital anyways, he was under floor surveillance by the hospital staff. The hospital would have used security cameras to monitor the building, had there not been secret agents that recuperated here from time to time. The British government did not want the cameras to be tapped by terrorists.

If any visitors came to the hospital, they would have to be patted down before they could proceed to the public elevator. The stairs nearby were locked. Only hospital employees could use them. So, logically speaking, there was no way for the assassin to be able to reach the lobby except by elevator. All the windows to the hospital were unbreakable and could not be opened.

Even then, the assassin was literally chained to the bed on the second floor. The hospital only had three floors and it was the second floor that had at least three guards present on it at all times. It was this simple layout that prevented any prisoners from escaping while allowing the wounded soldiers/secret service men to heal in peace. How very wrong the guard was. They should have seen the blatant flaws in the hospitals design.

* * *

Yassen took in a quick look at his surroundings. He saw that he was in a small city somewhere in England. He hailed a nearby taxi with a wave of his hand. He wasn't concerned about money, not when he could kill the cab driver with his bare hands.

The taxi pulled up and stopped next to the male nurse.

"where would you like me to take you sir?" the cabbie asked.

"The nearest train station please. My wallet was stolen this morning and was told that it had been found there. I can pay you after we arrive there." the male nurse replied with a flawless British accent.

The cabbie hesitated for a moment before he replied. The cabbie then did something no cab driver should do when employed through a cab company. He offered the assassin a free ride there - stating that it was on his way home anyways.

Yassen quietly thanked the cab driver as he climbed into the back seat. Once he was buckled in, the cab driver pulled out onto the road. A moment later, a faint siren was heard coming from the hospital itself. Both men ignored it though as the cab driver drove to the train station.

A half hour later, they arrived to the station where both men parted ways at. Yassen strode into the place wearing the cabbie's jacket on top of his scrubs. The cab driver gave the jacket to Yassen in pity when yassen told him that his jacket had been taken as well. Yassen was just glad he didn't have to kill the man in the end. If he did, it would have only caused more problems. It was the man's hospitality that had technically saved his life.

Glancing around, he saw that there was lot of people in the train station. It was late in the afternoon. The sun had more or less set early against the dark clouds that threatened to dump their watery contents onto the earth below them. Yassen strode up behind his target and swiped a man's wallet effortlessly. Then Yassen made his way to the nearest public bathroom so that he could dispose most of the wallets' contents as well as the used syringes. With a passing thought, Yassen was amazed that he had not been stabbed by a needle and potentially contaminated by whatever blood was inside the needles. He thought back to that fateful day when he shot Sharkovsky after playing the game Russian Roulette by his terms. That was the only other night (not counting Malta) that luck was on his side as well.

Ten minutes later, Yassen paid for his train ticket with the stolen man's pounds. Yassen had an apartment in SoHo that no one knew about. It was there that the Russian would exile himself until he was well once more.

When the train pulled out onto the station, Yassen thought about John Rider's son and how the boy could be dealing with the mindblowing story about his father. It would be interesting to see how the boy was psychologically handling the news.

Yassen's thoughts then turned to techniques the contract killer would need to use to avoid being assassinated by the organization that once employeed the blond assassin once the train bagan to pick up speed ad it headed towards London.

Scorpia did not believe in giving people second chances when they fail a mission they were sent out to complete by the organization itself. Yassen knew this all to well for he had killed three of his coworkers in the last year alone for failing to complete their tasks that Scorpia wanted them to complete.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys!

Its me again! I typed out the second chapter. There isn't much action in it, if anything, it's a filler chapter. However, I hope you enjoy it. I did not take the time to edit or spellcheck this either. I plan on doing that tomorrow and will have both chapters edited sometime late tomorrow evening.

Hope you enjoy this chapter! Chapter three will move forward in the story's timeline. It should be interesting to see what I will type up then.

Please read and respond. I will not post chapter three until I get at least 10 reviews. Especially since over 200 people have already viewed chapter one and only three reviewed. You have been officially warned.

- Little-Dhamphir

* * *

When Yassen woke up, he glanced at the clock beside his bed. It said that it was four in the afternoon. He groaned when he sat up slowly. He had been feeling pain for the past two days from the wound in his chest. There was no morphine at his apartment. He stupidly forgot to replenish it after it had expired.

Yassen decided to sleep for the most part throughout the day. He did not feel well enough to move around often. In fact, it hurt too much just to think about leaving the bed. It wasn't like he had not been shot before, it's just that, he had not been shot in the chest to date.

The bullet should have killed him. It shattered one of his ribs as the bullet tore through multiple layers of muscle, fatty tissue and tore a few veins in his chest to pieces before resting near his heart. Yassen knew he was a lucky bastard as such and was immensely relieved that he was still alive. For a while, Yassen wanted to leave Scorpia but wasn't sure how he could do it without having to worry about being hunted down all the time.

At the moment, Yassen was not completely sure if Scorpia knew that Yassen was still alive. It was this thought that unnerved him as he continued to take short shallow breaths whilst he laid in bed as still as possible.

It hurt less if he didn't move his chest much. He was glad that he had at least remembered to replace the extra strength Advil and Aspirin in the first aid kit that resided under the bed he currently slept in. He took these pills often despite the fact it could not relieve all the pain he was feeling.

Yassen groaned once more when his body told him that it was time to use the restroom. He stared at the toilet nearby with disdain. The toilet was taunting him by telling him that using the restroom would be a bittersweet experience. To feel relief, he must endure a lot of pain just getting up and moving at a snail's pace just so that he could relieve the growing pressure in his bladder.

In the end, his bladder won the fight. Begrudgingly, he sat up and tried to ignore the flare of pain in his chest while he moved his legs to the side. He panted at the exertion this simple action seemed to cause. When he felt well enough to stand, he stood slowly and fought the wave of dizziness and nausea as best as he could before taking the 15 steps or so towards the bathroom in his bedroom. If Damian Cray had not been killed by that strange girl in the plane, Yassen would have made it his life's goal to hunt the man down and kill him slowly himself in the most horrific way possible.

Once Yassen had fully emptied his bladder into the toilet's bain, he flushed the toilet. He sank to the floor and felt immense relief. He had no clue how much time it had passed as he slowly recounted the events that followed after the train came to a stop just outside of London.

* * *

It was determined when Yassen originally bought his train ticket that he was currently in the city of Manchester, England. To get to London, he would be riding in the economy seat on the train for two hours before he arrived at the Euston station. From there, he would take the underground tube to the SoHo district in London before walking (more like dragging in all honesty) to his apartment. All in all, it was going to be at least three hours before Yassen reached his apartment and injected himself with morphine. He smiled to himself for a fraction of a second as he thought about the morphine that awaited for him there. If he current luck held out, then he would be well enough to travel again in two weeks or so.

Luck was on his side until he got to his apartment. He was able to avoid all police at the Euston and the underground tube stations. It also helped that there was still a lot of people trying to get back home later that day in London. This made blending into his surroundings a lot easier to manage when he slipped into the crowds that entered and exited the various trains and the stations themselves in London.

When he finally reached his apartment, he trudged inside and headed towards the main office. He decided to leave his apartment keys behind with them after the stormbreaker incident in case he needed to get back to the apartment in a hurry. He knew this would be a lot easier to gain access to his apartment and he did not have to worry about knowing where the spare key at all times.

There was a young lady who manned the desk there at around 8pm that evening. Confidently, Yassen walked up to the counter and spoke once more in English with the lady.

"Excuse me?" Yassen asked her with a New York accent.

"Yes?" she replied back whilst she finished typing an email to her boss.

"My name is Joshua Rider. My wallet was stolen and the train station lost my suitcase as well to top everything off when I was traveling back from Whales on a business trip. Before I left here when I resided in my apartment I left my apartment keys at the counter so that they would be kept for safe keeping. How can I access my apartment again? I don't have any identification with me at the moment."

Yassen shrugged his shoulders as he made a quick visual sweep of the lobby floor with his eyes. Within seconds, he determined where all the exits were and counted only four people who was in the lobby at that particular moment (himself included). He did not glance up at the security cameras though he knew where they were located within the lobby of the apartment complex. Nearby, two teenagers sat at a computer desk and working oa some homework assignment together. He ignored them. They were no threat at the moment.

The lady took a moment to process the false story that Yassen had fed to her before she responded back to him. She scrutinized his appearance and wondered what a nurse was during for long periods of time in Whales when there was plenty of hospitals within the city of London to work in. It was not her place however to question the residents who resided in the apartment complex. She proceeded with her reply.

"I'm sorry for the travel difficulties you had sir. Luckily, if you are able to provide us the answers to you security questions as well as your American SSN number, then I can cross reference that information for you and see if it matches up to the apartment number you give us. If it all matches up correctly, I can hand the keys to you then without a problem." She then proceeded to hand Yassen a sheet of paper with spots for him to fill in his information.

Yassen knew the lady meant to say she would check and validate his personal information, but now was not the time to contradict her. Not when he was in pain and desperately wanted to get to his morphine stash located under his bed.

On the sheet, there was three blanks provided for him to write out the three answers to his security questions. The directions asked for the receptionist to recite the questions aloud as he wrote the answers down.

His questions were: 1. What was the name of the town he lived in at the age of fifteen? 2. What was his favorite author? and 3. What was the second language that he learned.

Once he had written all the pertinent information down, she proceeded to check to see if the information was correct within the computer's main system files. After a few minutes of typing and clicking the button on the mouse occasionally, she rose from her chair at the massive desk.

"Well Mr. Rider, all the information appears to be correct. If you would please wait here for a moment, I will go and retrieve a set of keys for you to let you back into your apartment."

"Thank you." was all he said before he turned to sit down in the lobby on one of the few couches the apartment complex provided for their residents.

About a month or two before John Rider's son was due to be born, both Yassen and John sat down and researched apartments together in an attempt to purchase a safe house only the two of them would know about. They decided on an apartment in the SoHo district in London.

Why? Yassen was not so sure then, but he hung to John's words then with complete trust. Yassen knew that John would never betray the location of the apartment to anyone. It was in fact, John's idea in the first place. But still, Yassen found it a bit odd that it would be in London of all places.

When Yassen later discovered that John was a spy working for MI6, Yassen was afraid to visit the apartment complex. For years, he avoided the place as if it contained the plague. Once Yassen had built up enough money in his multiple bank accounts, he hired his first associate to monitor the apartment to see who came and went from it.

Yassen was rather surprised when he found out later that John was true to his word and did not tell anyone about the apartment. There was no secret cameras or hidden microphones within the apartment either. Yassen was able to determine this when he sent a note to his employee asking him to break into the apartment complex twelve years later after the apartment had been purchased. Nothing could be found in the apartment that would have tipped Yassen off that the apartment was bugged in anyway. Well... Except for the note that was left behind by John himself.

Yassen was pulled from his thoughts once he heard the receptionist call out to Joshua. Yassen stood up slowly and fought hard against showing any pain that was now radiating from his chest. With a slow, tired pace, Yassen approached the desk once more and took the keys from the woman's outstretched hand.

"Hope the remainder of your evening is more pleasant sir." she replied quickly when she noticed the look that Yasssen had on his face. "I do apologize for the wait whilst I retrieved your keys for you."

"it was not a problem." he replied as he took the keys and proceeded towards the elevators. There was no way in hell that Yassen would purposely climb those stairs despite the warning his professor once gave him about the danger of riding in an elevator full of strangers. Yassen hurt too much and just wanted to get to his apartment that was located on the fifth floor.

"Good night sir!" the lady called out to his retreating figure as Yassen stepped towards the elevator and pushed the button that would take him back up to the apartment that he missed so much. He never replied back to the woman as he stepped into the elevator a moment later and pushed the button that would take him to the fifth floor of the building.

In what seemed like forever, Yassen reached his apartment and fumbled with the key as he attempted to unlock the door. It took a moment, but the key eventually slid into the lock. With a turn of the key, the tumbler turned within the lock so that Yassen would be permitted into the apartment itself.

The apartment was small for a two bedroom apartment. Yassen locked the door beind him and set the alarm he had installed in the apartment a year or so ago. There was also microphones and cameras hidden throughout the apartment that he placed strategically. The laptop that had the recording footage from the audio and cameras was kept in the safe along with the letter that John had left for Yassen years ago.

Yassen did not bother to check the footage and he strode into the master bedroom - crossing the kitchen/living room in the process. Once he arrived to his bedroom, yassen slowly shut the door and immediately went for the first aid kit he kept under the bed. As he opened the kit, he pulled out the bottle of morphine and stared at it with a mixture of shock and disdain. The fucking drug expired five months ago!

The bottle of morphine would not be good to use as it would not be strong enough to combat the pain. Although Yassen was not an expert, he knew that expired opiates can have some nasty side effects depending on the brand. However, Yassen could not remember for the life of him if Morphine was one of those drugs that had nasty side effects once the expiration period had passed. Angrily, he threw the bottle into the nearby trash can.

Searching throughout the first aid kit, Yassen was somewhat relieved that he found some extra strength Advil as well as aspirin. Tomorrow, Yassen would begin taking the aspirin once the residual effects of the drugs had left his system. He would use the aspirin for a day or two for the medication also doubled as a blood thinner. This would help to keep any potential blood clots at bay until he could start moving around once more. Then he would switch over to Advil and Use them until Yassen got to feeling better enough to order replacement morphine.

His reasoning of deciding not to not use morphine for the remainder of his healing period was because he did not want any negative side effects to occur other than the nausea he would be experience once he began his temporary aspirin regimen.

Yassen looked longingly towards his bed. It seemed to beckon to him as he fought his increasing drowsiness. He knew he needed to get out of the bloodied nurse's scrub uniform. With much difficulty, Yassen lifted the scrub top over his head and dropped it onto the ground in front of him. Then he pulled the pants off as well, leaving him with any clothes on whatsoever. He proceeded to the dresser on the opposite side of the bed and rifled through the clothing materials he had at his disposal. He put on some boxer shorts and a pair of pajama bottoms.

If there was one thing Yassen hated most about a hospital was the inability to wear some kind of undergarment around the genital area. He relished in the feeling of his boxes rubbing against his skin with each slow step he took towards the bed. He fell asleep as soon as he pulled the covers back and climbed into the bed shortly before 9pm. Today had been a long day for him.

* * *

Yassen quickly gathered his thoughts and pushed the flashback to the side. Using the counter top around the sink, he slowly stood up from the floor and made his way back towards the bed. As he climbed back in, he sat in a seated position with his legs stretched out in front of him.

He turned to the food on his dresser bed. Yassen picked up the package of crackers and stared at it with disgust before he forced himself to eat it. Then he proceeded to drink half a bottle of water before taking his next allowed dosage of aspirin. With any luck, Yassen would be able to switch off from the aspirin to the advil in two to three days time.

Slowly, Yassen laid down on his right side and prayed to himself that his nausea would not return soon. He was already running low on aspirinnand it would not do to well to throw them up once more. Therefore, he made every attempt to fall back asleep so that he would not have to endure another wave of nausea. It was bad enough that he could not take medications on an empty stomach. If one was not careful enough, that people could seriously injure themselves whilst taking aspirin.

After what seemed like an eternity, Yassen managed not to get sick again and fell back into restless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

AN:

So, I tried to type out chapter three to sanctuary yesterday that involved both Alex and Yassen directly. As a result, the chapter was horrible to the point re I became confused with what I originally typed out.

Instead, I wrote this chapter. I have to admit, it matches the story's passive theme better. This chapter is a partial flashback chapter that goes over Yassen's rehabilitation post GSW up until he reads the newspaper. Hopefully, this chapter stays within the relative timeline of the events that occurred in The Alex Rider book series.

From This moment on, all flashback entries are going to be written in italics. This will make it easier for you to read and comprehend the story as a whole as more chapters are written. As a bonus treat, I went back and edited chapter one and elaborated on a few parts of that chapter. The word count increased by 200 words. Hopefully, that makes it easier to read now!

Thank you for taking the time to read this story! I promise the next author's note will not be as long. I enjoyed reading all the message feedback and will be sending out individual thank you responses in the next week or so. I have a comprehensive final exam, a mid term and an introductory exam I must successfully pass before I can begin my new college class for the semester. Hence the few days it took to get this chapter written.

Please read and respond! It really does help me improve this story. I will be keeping the ten reviews minimum requirement before posting chapter four. Hope everyone has an enjoyable week!

- Little-Dhamphir

* * *

Yassen stared at his computer on his desk. Who knew managing a secretive terrorist group would be such a pain in the ass! Then again, Yassen hadn't planned out any terrorist activities. He just assassinated people for the most part while dealing drugs and smuggling weaponry on the sidelines. This new career path made a fair amount of money already.

Yassen continued to stare at the computer. Should he send out a kill order and have one of his associates kill the two men who grievously messed up Yassen's latest assassination attempt Or should Yassen kill the two men himself. It was these decisions that he hated to make. He didn't have the time to shoot the men at the moment despite the strong desire to kill them.

In the end, he wrote out the kill orders. He needed to figure just how much the failed assassination attempt would cost him in the long run. It was the contract kills that Yassen made the majority of his living on. The weapons smuggling and drug dealing was more or less his bonus paycheck.

It was in the middle of adjusting his finances and preparing his employee paychecks that a hesitant knock on his office door interrupted his work. Silently, Yassen straightened in his chair as he looked to his right at the security monitors. He could see the two armed guardsmen guarding his locked door.

Outside stood the trauma physician he fired a few weeks ago. The man worked solely for Yassen and tended to his employee's injuries. It was this man that helped keep Yassen's coworkers in top shape. Yassen even paid the man to go back to school and become a physical trainer. It was this subtle technique that increased the assassin's assets by sixteen percent. His employees got hurt less often and were therefore able to complete more assignments. Even Scorpia employed this tactic from time to time when they were once in power.

Yassen pressed a button under his desk. The door unlocked itself whilst Yassen told the guy to come in verbally. When the Doctor entered, he acknowledged Yassen's presences with a silent nod of his head as he sat down in the chair that faced the assassin's desk. He waited patiently for ten minutes for Yassen to finish the budget for next week.

Yassen then looked up from his computer and addressed the young Italian Doctor. The Doctor was nervous about the medical update he was told to give to Yassen himself about the strange teenage boy that yassen had brought back from the house he had blown up just outside Istanbul city limits.

"what is the boy's status update?" Yassen asked in Russian. Yassen felt that the Doctor needed to improve his Russian some more. He assumptions were correct when the Doctor's face paled a little as he tried to speak Russian, pausing every few moments as he had to think of the word translations that he would need to use to describe the boy's serious condition. Still, he doctor managed to get his entire message across. This pleased Yassen even though he never told the Doctor.

"The boy is stable at the moment sir. I decided to keep him sedated for a few days so that his body can begin to recover from some of its worse injuries. I would say he is no longer in immediate relapse danger. He is receiving nutrients in the meantime intravenously. He is very malnourished and appears to have been starved for a few weeks now - I would guess about six, maybe seven weeks." Yassen nodded. He saw how severe the boy's malnourishment was when he rescued Alex. The boy's muscles were smaller than what they should have been. You could see his rib cage push against the boy's skin some everytime the boy inhaled.

"The boy is also receiving a broad-spectrum antibiotic at the moment until we can fully determine what type of infection he has. Once the infection has been identified, he will begin more agressive treatments to help get rid of the infection. He is currently septic and new infections lesions have been determined this past hour on internal ultrasound scans. We're not sure if the infection is aggressive and spreading rapidly or if the infection sites have just been producing more pus in the past fourteen hours. I plan to keep the medical team on twelve hour rotations until the boy has healed enough to where the sedative is no longer needed and the infectious leison's are not producing as much pus as they are right now. I would have him undergo surgery again if his vitals were not so low..."

The Doctor paused for a moment as he took in Yassen's facial emotions. As usual, the assassin did not show any emotion. After a few moments Yassen spoke up.

"Is there anything else who wish to tell me?" Yassen spoke quietly.

"The boy does have residual drugs in his system still from the weeks of torture he endured. I have not administered a pain relieving medication yet until his toxicology reports improve and his vitals are no longer low. His surgery to repair the knife wound in his stomach was successful. It was amazing he even survived the traumatic injury in his weakened state."

"I see." the assassin replied. "When will he be allowed to consume clear foods?"

"After the boy has been awake and can hold down water for two days. I want to make sure his intestines are functioning properly before he consumes solid foods. His arm has been reset after after we cleaned and repaired the open skin tear where the broke ulna bone had pushed through. His shoulder was reset shortly after. He will need physical therapy on his left arm as soon as he is able to. Those two injuries have weakened his arm muscles more than what the malnourishment caused. Other than that, he is expected to make a full recovery despite any unforeseeable events that might happen in the future." The doctor finished reciting his report on the one patient he had to care for at the moment. It was easy to catalogue (and remember the medical report as such).

"thank you Doctor." Yassen spoke once more. "Make sure the boy does not regress any further from here on out. Has his fever resolved any since I brought him back early this morning?"

The Doctor's eyes widened a little while his breath barely hitched. Yassen noticed those two details and saw that the doctor had forgotten to tell Yassen about that particular thing about the boy.

"the fever has gone down some but has not fully gone away due to the infection that is currently in him. However, the infection is no longer as dangerous as it had been when the boy first arrived at the facility here."

"Thank you." the assassin replied once more. "You are dismissed."

The Doctor stood up and left the room silently. He knew that Yassen had cared for the boy. There was no other reason as to why the boy had been brought back with him. What the boy's relationship to his boss' was, Dr. Morandi wasn't sure. He did know that if the way was to die, the doctor would also be killed. His boss did not need to say that outloud, Dr. Morandi saw that as plain as day in the Assassin's eyes.

* * *

Yassen sat as his desk once more. The budget finances were finally finished. Yassen already had the funds that were allocated to his employees sent out as electronic paychecks. Yassen sat back at his now blank computer screen and waited for the two emails to return that would confirm that two of his employees would have been killed. Yassen's hand twitched as he thought of the gun that was resting inside one of the desk's open drawer slots. The drawer did not have a handle on it. He could just reach in and pull the gun out. This would save him a few precious seconds should someone try to bust into his office and attempt to kill the man.

Yassen stood up and cracked his back as he stretched. He walked over to his bookshelf and pulled a key out from one of his books he kept on the shelf. Screw the emails, he thought to himself. He had not slept in more than 40 hours and felt like he was in need of a shower. The emails could wait for him.

Yassen thought those thoughts as he pushed a hidden button inside the wooden bookshelf. He stepped back as the bookshelf opened and revealed a locked door behind it. This door led to a hallway that connected the man's office to his personal bedroom. He had it installed in case he needed to escape rather quickly. he locked the door behind him with a push of a button from the inside of the hallway. The door was also electronic in case the key could not be used anymore.

The two rooms were on opposite ends of his private home. There was a separate building on the other end of the compound hidden deep in the Woods just outside of Saint Petersburg. There was a lot of places he could go and hide in should he have to fight for his life. Yassen thought about all of this as he pushed open the door that led into his private bedroom.

There, Yassen went straight into his bathroom and took one of the longest showers he had ever had in his life. The hot, pulsating water felt good under his skin as he thought back to his recovery period whilst he holed himself up in his London apartment.

* * *

_As the week since Yassen underwent surgery progressed, Yassen slowly got better. Tomorrow, the new school term for many students in London would begin. Yassen smirked for a moment when he thought of the silence he would be able to envelop himself in for a few hours a day - until the weekend that is. Briefly, Yassen's thoughts went back to the youngest rider. Would Alex be going back to school this time or was he going to play the stupid spying game once more. Alex should have taken Yassen's advice originally back on the helicopter pad after the stormbreaker incident. At least then Damian would not have shot the idiot child on Air Force One. _

_Yassen had been moving around fairly frequently the past two days. The skin on his chest wound was half healed by now and breathing had became easier. Yassen called the one person he could trust. He was a nurse residing here in London. Yassen hired him a while back to scope out his apartment whilst the guy was a student in nursing school. The man took a semester off from his graduate studies in America. He wanted to become a nurse practitioner. He moved to London and decided he would try to find work whilst he lived in London. He budgeted his stay wrong and was not running low. _

_Yassen had found out about the man and told the guy he would buy the man's flat and give it to the guy if the man could scope out a particular place for him. The graduate student (whose name was Austin at the time) quickly agreed. Two weeks later, Yassen paid Austin the remaining balance that was due on the flat in cash. This was the start of a strange, but reliable friendship. _

_Austin (now called Eric) visited Yassen twice a day and helped tend to the assassin's injuries. The man stole some morphine from the local London hospital and gave the entire bottle to Yassen. Yassen injected himself once daily. He took advil for the remainder of the day. He didn't want to become addicted to the medication and was already doing alright on the aspirin. Eric had mentioned that he used some Doctor's code he swiped to get the medication bottle. No one knew it was missing. _

_Eric was currently collecting some groceries for Yassen. The man needed to eat and he had already finished his last package of crackers. The box of granola/protein bars was empty as well. Whilst the man was shopping. _

_Yassen read about the reports of what happened after the crash of Air Force One. Somehow, the Press found out that is was Damian Cray who had stolen the airplane and tried to blow up all the areas that grew poppies for opium. That wasn't what outraged most of the world. It was the fact that The United States had missile weapons on stand by at all times. This put many countries on edge for very few could trust the American government. _

_When Eric returned, he helped yassen unwrap his chest and placed a large waterproof bandage over the surgical wound site before Yassen took a shower. Eric decided it would be best to also cook his employer some food as well (omelettes he decided) before yassen emerged from his shower. Once Eric had finished making the omelette, he gathered the medical supplies that was necessary to clean the wound and rewrap it once more. The wrap seemed to help Yassen breathe better. _

_Somehow, after the shower, Yassen was able to determine how to access his bank account funds without tipping Scorpia off. Yassen pulled out all of his cash savings from the safe nearby. He would have Eric go and retrieve his funds from the Swiss bank account that was the main source of Yassen's income. It was on this day, that Yassen had fully hired the man. _

_Three days later, Eric put in his two weeks notice at the london hospital and went to work as Yassen's personal healthcare official. Eric had been working for the Assassin since then. The pay was a lot better and there was less work stress involved as a whole._

* * *

When Yassen returned from his bedroom after showering and drying his hair, he went back to the hidden passageway that would lead him to his office. It was that computer that resided there that Yassen completed his work on. He only used his personal laptop in his bedroom as a means of keeping a record of his diary accounts. He had lost his Car key flash drive a while back was was in the process or retyping the journal entries out.

Once he was at his office, he saw he had recieved an email from a potential client. The email was from a wealthy client who was in need of Yassen's "expertise". Yassen read the message and saw that there was an attachment to the email. He clicked on the attachment and saw the next task that was waiting for him there. Yassen would be killing this man this time.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: so, this is more or less another filler chapter. However, this chapter is the precursor of Yassen's next kill. This chapter features Alex in it as well. Just not in the way most readers want it to be. There is a reason for this. Promise!

Also, some of you may be wondering why there is a lot of medical references in this story. I'm a pre-nursing student who plans on obtaining her BSN in the states before going on to Physician Assistant school. I currently have my CNA I certificate. I will explain the process of dental hygiene for the unconscious patient in the author's note in the next chapter for those who want to learn more about why this particular form of hygiene is important.

This chapter is shorter than my previous two chapters, but Please don't worry. The next chapter will contain a flashback as well as the assassination of the Lawyer (the planning and implementation of the kill itself. I expect that chapter to be around 3,500 words at least. It will take a few days to type out as a response.

Happy reading!

Little-Dhamphir

* * *

That evening, Yassen took a stroll down to the building on the opposite end of the private piece of land he had purchased from the Russian government eight months ago. Two months later, Yassen's private home and the building across his private property had been built and his business was underway.

Already, Yassen employed around twenty people. Five of his staff members had medical expertise. Their job was to make sure that all of his employees were healthy and happy. Yassen hired a doctor and a psychiatrist along with two nurses who specialized in critical care/trauma medicine. His fifth medical employee was none other than Eric.

Eric - with Yassen's help - went back to the states and completed the remaining courses that would eventually make the man a nurse practitioner. Eric was employed 24/7 and catered only to Yassen's needs before Yassen had bought the twenty acres of land. Eric was the only employee of Yassen's that lived in Yassen's home. Everyone else had to share rooms with one other person on the third floor of the building.

There were ten security guards that patrolled Yassen's compound and land. These men completed work rotations. There was two twelve hour shifts each day. Two men guarded the employee building while the other four men guarded his house. The remainder of his employees were arms and drugs dealers. There was three total. Hours ago, Yassen employed two assassin's who also worked as guardsmen when they were not completing their tasks in another city somewhere in the world. Twenty minutes had passed since Yassen heard the two quick shots that signaled their deaths.

Ironically enough, it was the head of security who shot the two men. He was a better assassin than the two dead men combined. Yassen was going to have to hire two more men soon and train them to be assassins. Luckily, that was one of the reasons that Yassen decided to build a school on his land as well. It wasn't like Yassen would still be living in his home five months from now. He just didn't want to have to go through the trouble again of finding a place to buy another twenty acres of land or so. Plus, this saved him money. He still owned that apartment in the SoHo district in London.

About a quarter of a kilometer away, a third building was under construction. Here is where Yassen would help train future assassin's as well as drugs and arms dealers. It would be a small school that would only allow six students in at a time. Yassen did plan on expanding his organization. His goal was to make it supersede Scorpia. He did plan on expanding his business to incorporate a wider variety of criminal activites. He just did not want to draw attention to his organization yet. Not when he didn't even had a name for the organization!

* * *

Yassen's controlled his thoughts as he strolled into the employee building. Half of the first floor was a medical facility. It had three beds, a small operating room and two examination rooms. The place was always kept stocked with medical supplies. Yassen did not spare any expenses. Anything his medical staff needed, they usually had within twenty four hours. It was here that he found his head of security staff member Who kept an eye on Alex. Eric (and a young female nurse) were the medical staff on duty that evening.

Yassen could see Alex 'resting' in one of the hospital style beds. His vitals seemed to have improved some more since Dr. Morandi's visit earlier in the day. The female nurse was currently completing inventory of all the medical supplies that has Ben used since Yassen and Alex had arrived back about two days ago. She would be sending Gergorovich a supplies sheet of everything that would need to be replaced. Eric, was over by Alex. The boy was intubated. As a result, Alex needed his teeth to be brushed once more. That was what Eric was doing.

Yassen would have found the sight to be almost comical had the assassin not known the reason behind as to why an unconscious/comatose person needed to have their teeth (and mouth brushed). You see, when a person is unconscious, their mouths become rather dry. This causes the tongue and mucous membranes to dry out and crust. Infection can result from this. So, in essence, it was a rather a reasonable thing to do. It was just borderline comical! Yassen could almost imagine the blond-haired child freak out should he ever find out that his teeth were brushed twelve times a day!

Yassen coughed silently to alert his presence. The female nurse looked up and appeared to be startled. If yassen had been any louder. She would more than likely jumped. Eric nodded his head in acknowledgement as he continued to perform what was known as "dental hygiene procedures for the unconscious patient". The head of security grunted in response. This annoyed Yassen, but he chose to ignore it. The man was very useful. It was why Yassen had him manage the security team.

"Nurse Chapman, could you please complete the remainder of Alex's hygienic procedure. I need to had a word in private with Nurse Henderson and my head of security." the two men who were currently in the medical facility both raised their heads when they heard Yassen speak. Normally, Yassen spoke to people in the comfort of his own home. He didn't like to do it in the employee compound.

"Yes sir!" Nurse Chapman replied.

Her first name was Adriana. She had been employed by Yassen for four months now. The pay was very good. She was a single mother who had her twelve year old daughter enrolled in a boarding school in the south of France while she worked for Yassen in Russia. Adriana received two two week vacations each year. That was when she flew to France to be with her daughter. Adriana went over to where Alex was lying sedated on the bed. She put on some gloves and took the tongue depressor that had be wrapped with gauze (gauze was taped down) on one end of the depressor from Eric and proceeded to finish the remainder of the patient care assignment. In a few minutes time, she would record the task in Alex's Kardex file stating when Eric began the procedure and when Adriana finished it.

Yassen began to walk towards the end of the medical facility that had added two personal offices for both doctors employed by Yassen. He opened the door to Dr. Morandi's office with the two men behind him before shutting the door himself and taking a seat in the chair where the doctor usually sat.

There was a moment of silence as the three men started at each other. That silence was broken when Eric found the courage to speak up.

"Is there something you wish to tell us, sir?"

Yassen stared at the man some more before he did speak up. "Yes. I need you both to keep An eye on Alex." the two men had questioning looks on their faces. "The boy is in bad condition according to his medical files. I want him personally guarded at all costs whilst I am away on business.

His enemy still walks free, despite being in hiding since Brett and his partner failed their assignment. The two men were supposed to distract the guards at the location of the assassination attempt of the local drug lord's home in Istanbul two going on three days ago. I have no doubt the drug lord will use his connections and track down this location in an attempt to kill me. Should they find Alex as well, I am sure they will stop at nothing to make sure the boy is murdered in retaliation.

Therefore, should something happen whilst I am indeed away on business, I want the boy removed from this site and taken to the safe house located in Kursk. Avoid the Moscow safe house. It is no longer usable location. Brett and his partner did not cover their tracks correctly and the safe house is now compromised. The boy is not to return to enemy hands at all costs. For this, I am leaving you both in charge of his personal well being. Don't fail me."

There was another moment of silence as the two men who sat across from Yassen took in this information. They nodded their heads as a visual display of confirmation. Yassen's head of security decided to take this moment to speak up.

Yassen's head of security knew not to ask to many questions. Yassen's head of security also knew that his boss would not inform the two men who sat across from Yassen the nature of location his next job would be. This was standard procedure in case anyone was caught and tortured later on.

Therefore, Yassen's head of security asked not a question of where his boss would be heading off to but a question of how long will he be gone and when would he arrive back here.

"I am not sure right now. I was contracted to kill a lawyer recently, but there was a lot of information missing in the file. I may return - the the earliest; in a week. However, expect the assignment to take at least two weeks to complete. The lawyer is well in the the political world."

Yassen stopped speaking and waited for any other questions to be asked. When there was none, he spoke up one more time. His next statement was directed towards Eric.

"Make sure the boy wakes soon or heals fast enough that ventilation is no longer needed. If you need to get away quickly, I do not want intubation or the intravenous tubes to impede Alex's departure within this facility.

Yassen's phone buzzed and indicated that his current employer was waiting for his response. "That is all, you are both dismissed." Yassen pulled his phone out from his back pocket and reviewed the new email sent. The man who wanted his partner killed was rather impatient. Yassen could not stand impatient men.

As Yassen read his email, the head of security stood up to leave the small, cramped office. Eric stayed behind. Two minutes later, yassen sent the rather long reply back to his impatient employer. When Yassen pocketed his phone he spoke to Eric privately in the first time in a week.

"Sir? May I speak to you for a moment, if you are not to busy?"

"Make it quick. I have a flight to book."

Eric pursed his lips and contemplated on how he ought to respond. In the end, he chose to talk to the assassin rather bluntly. After all, Eric and Yassen had fought before. The fights were physical at times, but Yassen always saw reason in the end and never killed the man. Eric was no longer afraid of the man. That didn't mean he never hesitated around Yassen as such.

"Sir, you haven't slept in almost two day. Actually, it has been two days now. An hour ago marked the forty-eight hour mark since you arrived back and had your shoulder stitched back up from the stray shrapnel piece.

You need to rest for at least eight hours before you head out and complete your next assignment. If you don't, you might make a mistake." Eric stared at the man. It was Eric's expertise and past military history in his family that the man was hired by Yassen. It was Eric's job to make sure that Yassen stayed in good health. Why else did Eric stay in the assassin's personal home. It definitely wasn't because the Russian assassin wanted company.

"I do plan on obtaining some sleep Eric after I have purchased my plane ticket. I will sleep upon arrival at the city's hotel. This discussion is over, but you're concern has been noted."

Yassen left Dr. Morandi's office. Eric exited afterwards and shut the door. As yassen walked out of the medical facility, he saw Eric take the boys' vitals. Nurse Chapman was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Back in Yassen's personal bedroom, the man recounted the events that surrounded his last stay back in London so many months ago around a particular newspaper entry two and a half weeks since his major chest surgery. He thought about the article as he packed a small carry on bag with only the barest amount of essentials he would need. His flight was due to leave in two hours. Yassen would be flying to Berlin.

If the job was successful, Yassen would be paid a quarter of a million in Euros. He would not allow this kill to be messed up this time. He already lost $150,000 American dollars. He needed the money, but what he needed most, was better employees.

Once packed, Yassen drove himself to the local airport in St. Petersburg. He left a spare set of keys with Eric should the man need to make a hasty retreat with Alex and Yassen's head of security. Yassen hoped that would not happen though. He didn't want to have to worry the boy (and his employee's safety) whilst he was away.

Upon his arrival at the airport, Yassen parked his car and went into the airport. He schooled his thoughts and thought of nothing but his next assignment. He paid close attention to his surroundinas while keeping his head turned from the various cameras that were situated throughout the airport. It wouldn't fare to well if the assassin was indeed spotted. Not when the world thought for the most part that he was dead.


	5. Chapter 5

Yassen did not arrive to his hotel room until about two hours upon arrival at the Berlin airport that dealt with international travel. What made this worse was that the flight itself only took about three hours.

Still, to say that it was a relief when Yassen put the key into the doors lock was an understatement. At the moment, he thought he Had stayed awake for fifty-two hours. This was wrong of course. Yassen was a few minutes shy of staying awake for fifty-five hours.

However, Yassen still needed to set the room up for his protection. This involved placing various items of his strategically around his room, setting up the hidden video camera and audio tape recorder as well as checking to see if his pen-like contraption was still working despite having checked the pen before he left his home six hours ago.

He carried a bag with a few of his hairs in it was a last form of security. It was the classic hair trick. Stick a hair by the door's bottom frame crack. If it moved whilst you were away, it could have meant that someone had entered your room without your permission.

It took a moment for Yassen to find the 'Do Not Disturb' sign. When he did, he placed it on his door out in the hallway before going back into his room to take a shower. When the shower was complete, Yassen would put on his evening clothing and go to sleep in them.

Yassen never the addressed clothing by their correct name: pajamas. It was a weird word to say. He didn't have time to fool with words he associated with what was considered english slang language. Not when there was close to half a million Euros at stake here.

When Yassen turned his light off beside the bed, he stared at his cell phone's alarm function. Did he set his alarm to wake him up in four hours or six hours? He knew Eric was correct when he said that Yassen needed to play catch up in the amount of hours he slept. He however, did not like sleeping for more than four hours. It was unnecessary and a waste of time in his opinion.

Silently, he sighed in frustration and set his alarm for five hours in the end. At least then Eric couldn't sedate him for not putting in the effort to sleep more. That was one experience Yassen wanted to avoid having to repeat again. It was also this incident that Yassen held a deep respect for the man as well. No one had ever stood up to the assassin before and lived to tell the tell. This didn't mean though that Yassen would not kill the man should he ever screw up. Even Eric did not deserve a second chance in the assassin's eyes.

* * *

All to soon, Yassen's Alarm went off, stirring the assassin from his sleep. Looking at his clock, the clock read six in the morning. This was good. The early morning rush hour traffic and pedestrians would be able to provide enough opportunities for Yassen to blend into his surroundings.

According to the file, the man Yassen was paid to kill was in his late thirties and had two small daughters. The man's name was Peter Himmelreich. He was a lawyer who often defended the accused who got involved in political crimes and or scandals in any country in the world. Often times, his clients would be found innocent despite of the fact that they were really guilty. The man was that persuasive and manipulative and did a damn good job with each case he took on. This would be a man who was difficult to kill.

However, this man had a serious fault like many other men Yassen had assassinated before. He liked to do things on a particular schedule. Peter worked six days a week except when he took his vacation twice a year. Peter also refused to work on Christmas and New Year's. Those were days he dedicated to his daughters and the nanny who took care of him when he travelled.

Peter had breakfast at exactly 06:45 am each morning before going to the gym (the one that catered to those who were considered high profile people) for an hour each workday. Then he would arrive at his office shortly before 09:00 looking fresh and smart after showering in the exclusive gym's locker room. It was there that he work either work until 14:00 hours at his office or at the courtroom before he went to lunch.

It was strange that this man could persuade the judge to call for a break in between court sessions. He claimed that he was a diabetic and that he needed to keep a close eye on his blood sugars. One would think that this was not possible to do. How could a lawyer persuade any judge to call a recess at exactly 14:00 hours each day? Many believed that it was because he paid all the judges a fair amount of money so that he could stick to his desired schedule. Regardless of where he was in the world.

After Peter ate his lunch, he would head back to his office or the courtroom to continue working. Usually, Peter would finish working at around 19:00 hours. He would head back to the gym for another hour before going to home and consuming one last meal for the day (with his daughters if he was back home in Berlin) before going to bed.

Peter rode in a bullet-proof car if he ever went anywhere. He also employed two men to act as his personal bodyguards when he was not in the court room. He often changed clothing throughout the day to throw off anyone who might have been following him and also brought his own lunch that could not be tampered with.

It was this daily schedule that Yassen planned on exploiting and using to his advantage. Yassen followed the man for a week. He saw a few serious flaws in the mans plan.

For starters, Peter always sent one man home in the evenings and made the other man work. Another flaw was that Peter's men were not allowed into the gym for they carried weapons on them and would disrupt the security staff's safety measures they put into place to keep the gym safe. Then, there was the fact that Peter always brought a plastic water bottle with him to the gym. These were the bottles one would throw away once it was empty. It would be easy for someone to stick a needle into the bottle and poison the water.

If those two mistakes at the gym was not enough, Peter never allowed his security guards in his business office on the third floor. His shared office was located in the city limits district of Berlin. The build was non-descript in appearance other than the fact that the windows on the first floor had awnings on them. There was also a fire stairwell on the side of the building itself. This would prove two different escape routes for Yassen should he make his kill at the office itself.

Then there was his house. Needless to say, it was difficult to kill the man there. There was always a nanny and a gardener who stayed on the premises at all times. Then, there was the guard who stayed inside the house itself. As if three non-family witnesses were emough to worry about, Theres was always the extra precautions peter took.

The home had pressure sensors located within the driveway and up to the steps at his home. There was always security cameras in motion. The alarm stayed set to go off anytime the daughters were home unless playing outside. There was also a hidden exit located outside of the home in the woods nearby his home. It was abnormal that this man chose to live kilometers away from Berlin, but it was also to have a panic room as well as a secret tunnel that led to the exit in the woods. Strangely though, his car was never watched when the man was at home.

Yassen sat on his bed and debated on where he would kill Peter. Yassen knew that peter's home would be the most difficult place to kill the man. There was more security there and less chances to get away unseen by the witnesses nearby despite the comfort of the woods nearby. Plus, Peter's safe room was located between his and his daughters rooms. If he managed to lock himself in the safe room, there would be no way to get to the man and kill him before the police (or polizei as they're called in German) arrived to help Peter.

So that left his work office and the gym the man often went to. Yassen supposed he could kill the man at work had yassen been a novice. However, like the man's home, this was another spot he couldn't kill the man. When the polizei launched an investigation into the mans death at his own office, everyone who worked there would automatically be treated as suspects. Since Yassen was in fact hired by the man's partner, the Polizei could link Yassen to the crime by association alone. Then Yassen would not get paid for the job he was hired to complete and face jail time along with Peter's partner.

So that left the gym. Yassen pondered on how he could kill the man in a populated gym. There was certainly many locations to choose from. He could kill the man in the locker room, the weight room, the room with all the cardio machines, or even the pool as the man occasionally swam there. Yassen debated on these locations.

Yassen figured it was in his best interests to kill the man in the locker room as there was few witnesses in there. But how was the question that came to his mind. A stabbing could work if there was no metal detectors all visitors had to go through. But as it was, all guests had to walk through two sets before working out. If Yassen could not use a knife, then a gun with a silencer was out of he question.

So what else? Yassen pondered on how he cold kill his target. Then suddenly, Yassen remembered about the herbal plant: aconite! It also went by the name monkshood. Very easy to get on the black market. What made this plant interesting was that it is poisonous (and lethal). Of the victim was poisoned and died, there would only be one post mortum sign and it was asphyxia. Yassen now had his method. The matter was how to execute it.

Yassen glanced at the clock on the bedside table, it read three in the morning. He knew he ought to get some rest. He can plan the killing itself in the morning while he took a shower. Outside, the sky was cloudy. Rain started to fall as if the skies began to mourn the loss of another German resident who would die in the coming day or so.

When yassen woke the next morning, he set about in getting ready for the day. While he was taking his shower, he realized that he could always take two drinks with him to consume later. One of those drinks would be injected with a mixture of powdered aconite. The drink itself was a Citrus flavored tea. Yassen had found out two days ago that Peter loved to taste different kinds of flavored teas.

Later in the morning Yassen would go meet a drug dealer who had easy access to the more concentrated versions of powdered aconite to finalize the details of the purchase in the coming hours under a nearby bridge outside of Berlin. If all went well, the man Yassen was paid to kill would be dead the following morning when Yassen gave Peter the drink.

* * *

In no time at all, Yassen found himself outside the gym. He was wearing a shirt with a false company logo: Organic Citrus Tea. He carried a duffle bag with a spare change of clothes, tea bottles of tea, two of which was marked: trial sized bottle, an iPod that was designed to listen in on conversations within ten feet of Yassen, and a granola bar.

When Yassen stepped inside, he scanned his member ID for the gym before he walked through the two metal detectors that was placed within the gym's entrance so that the cloents could feel safe while they sweated for an hour or more while they were there.

The membership ID was issued to yassen when he first started to follow Peter. It was under a false name and was a trial access card that gave Yassen a free months' membership to the exclusive gym. Yassen had no need to use it after today despite the fact that the gym met all of Yassen's requirements. It was a shame that yassen would have to leave as soon as Peter drank his drink, Yassen wanted to exercise for about two hours, however that would be very difficult to do once a dead man was found dead inside the gym.

Yassen began to warm up his muscles on the lastest treadmill. He opted for a 5-1 interval run. The selected distance was five kilometers. Yassen did not want to over exert himself should he need to make a quick break from the would run for five minutes and then walk for a minute before running again until he ran the chosen distance. Yassen figured that he would complete half of his run before his victim arrived to warm up on a nearby treadmill as well.

Sure enough, when Peter arrived at the gym, Yassen saw that it was in fact seven in the morning. The gym was still quiet. There was only one other person in the cardio room with Peter and Yassen. It was a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties. She had red hair and a pale complexion. The woman reminded Yassen of the caretaker who took care of Alex when Yassen was told to assassinate the boy several months ago.

Yassen was halfway done with his exercise program he chose when Peter stepped onto the treadmill beside Yassen. Yassen watched the man select a rolling hills jogging program. His treadmill started up and the two exercised in silence for about fifteen minutes before Peter struck a conversation with Yassen.

"Hello. How are you?" Peter spoke for the first time that morning.

This surprised Yassen, he hesitated for a split second because he was Unsure how to proceed with this conversation. If he spoke to the man, would he see Peter as a human, could he still kill the man if the man told him anything about his life to Yassen that Yassen did not know bout?

On the other hand, if Yassen ignored the man, how could he persuade the man to try his company's product as an endorsement technique? yassen already thought of himself more as a marketing sales person than an assassin.

"I'm good. How are you?" In the end, Yassen decided that it would be better to speak to the man and deal with the potenial consequences later on.

"Good." luckily for Yassen, the man did not press for any further conversation despite the fact that the man was obviously checking out Yassen's t-shirt that endorsed the flavored teas. Twenty minutes later, Yassen's treadmill exercise was finished. Yassen went to go and grab the disinfectant that all gym patrons were required to use when they were finished working with the equipment they used.

Soon, Yassen saw Peter turn off his treadmill as well despite not competing the program he selected. Like Yassen, Peter grabbed a bottle of disinfectant and began to spray down his treadmill before wiping it down with a towel the gym provided for its patrons. This simple policy was effective enough and it did prevent many illness from being spread within the gym.

Yassen went back to the locker room at a leisurely pace. A quick check in the window showed Peter following Yassen at a short distance. For a supposedly careful man, he was being rather stupid about the who situation. Yassen smirked to himself, the man might have a law degree but he had no street smarts. No wonder peters partner wanted Peter dead.

Then again, why would Peter behave like this. It was rather uncharacteristic of him. Yassen wondered if the man knew something was wrong instinctively. Yassen continued to walk down the hallway - passing the weight lifting room before coming to the male locker room. Yassen opened the locker room's door and went inside. He crouched down enough so that his head would not be seen over the tops for the five foot lockers.

A moment later, Peter came in a well. He walked inside the locker room andauswd for a moment. It seemed like he was listening for the man who he tried to strike up a conversation with a moment ago. Yassen realized this and proceeded to stand up. He had his key in hand as his head popped up above the tops of the line of lockers.

Then, yassen proceeded to unlock his locker, as if dropping his key was no serious issue. Peter jumped when he saw Yassen's head emerge from the top of the locker. He started to put his hand on heart but stopped halfway before speaking up.

"Oh. You startled me!"

"I'm sorry, I bent down to pick up the key that I dropped on the ground just now." Yassen had his locker door open and was in the process of pulling his gym bag out.

"So..." Peter began, "I see your shirt says you work for a tea company. What's that like?"

Yassen had a funny look on his face. For a man who seemed confident, yet persuasive, this was certainly uncharacteristic behavior. Maybe his behavioral technique was really just a front that he used in the courtroom. After all, Yassen saw the man argue two days ago in a courtroom and for a second, Yassen believed the lawyer before he remembered not to let his beliefs get in the way of a future kill.

"It's not without it's challenges. Most people still dont know about the company and therefore, the sales are still low. That's why I was hired two weeks ago to endorse their product by wearing t-shirts of theirs and carrying around small tea samples." Yassen's German was fluent and he spoke like he was a native.

Peter paused for a moment before responding. "You wouldn't happen to have a sample would you? I love tea. Born and raised by foster parents in the southern United States. I was raised on tea."

"Of course." yassen replied as he spilled the smallest bottle of tea out of the bag and threw it to Peter. Peter caught the tea and smiled when he heard the crack of the seal breaking apart.

"Is something funny?" asked Yassen.

"I have to be careful when I drink things. If I don't hear the seal on any bottle break. I refuse to drink the beverage. I have made a lot of people mad in my career." Peter took a swig of the tea and grimaced slightly at the taste. Yassen noticed the grimace and prayed the next part of his plan worked.

He made the first tea really sugary with a tad bit of salt before he added in the citrus flavoring. This is what made the first drink taste strange. The second one, he added the citrus flavoring, some sugar and the aconite. The paragraph description on this bottle said "vitamin enhanced! First tea that you can drink post workout! Might taste strange but it'll cleanse you!" The drinker (Peter in this case) would only need to swallow some of the poisoned tea once or twice for the poision to affect him. It was highly concentrated and cases death within ten minutes.

To help persuade Peter to drink the poisoned tea, Yassen had the third drink made to have the exact same wrapper. This would be the drink that yassen himself would drink as a means to keep up his endorsement appearance.

"Here, try this instead. It tastes a little strange, but it's really healthy for you. Has natural sugars, no preservatives, and all that health nonsense." Yassen shrugged nonchalantly when he said this as he reached into his gym bag and pulled out the other bottle that said trial sized. He threw that one to Peter who caught it as well before Yassen pulled out his own personal tea to drink.

"thanks!" Peter replied. Peter listened for the tell-tale signs of the plastic seal breaking before consuming the drink. Shockingly, Peter did not grimace this time despite the poison being in his drink. This surprised Yassen, but Yassen was skilled enough to hide it.

"you're right." Peter said. "This does taste strange. But is good as well."

Peter took another sip of this drink, then followed with a fairly large swallow. Yassen grinned inward at the victory this foolish man gave Yassen.

"How do you afford the monthly gym membership here if you are just a product endorser?" Peter voiced his question aloud.

"It's a second job for me that helps support the relatively lavish lifestyle I like to lead. My main occupation is a cyber forensics analyst for several large companies in Berlin."

Peter whistled low. "what do they need you for then? Are the companies afraid someone is trying to hack into their systems?" Peter looked thirst and consumed another swig of his drink. Yassen made a mental note to himself that the poison was already in his system.

"It's classified." Was all Yassen said. The other man nodded as if that made sense but was really confusing for him. Soon, yassen noticed his victim raise a shaky hand to his throat.

"my mouth feels numb... Why are my hands tingling..." Peter became really confused and didn't seem to connect the drinks to his failing health. Yassen took another swig of his drink and made a face as if he was confused by the sudden turn of events. Yassen put his drink down and took a step onwards the man as if he was offering help.

"Do you need help?" Yassen barely spoke that last sentence aloud when Peter collapsed. The man starting to gasp and became scared.

"what did you do to me?! I can't see anything!" the man was not moving at this point and his breathing became more shallow. Yassen knew it was pointless to continue the conversation on at this point. His victim wouldn't be able to hear him anyways. Yassen gathered his things and placed them back in his bag. He also took the full bottle of the first tea and the pulled bottle that was on the floor. These already had his fingerprints on them. Yassen would have to burn these later once he left the gym.

Yassen calmly left the locker room, walked towards the entrance to the gym and said his good byes to the lady at the reception desk. When Yassen got back to his hotel room, Yassen would purchase a train ticket that would connect him to Vienna in Austria before flying out back to Moscow.

Yassen was able to confirm his kill when he heard polizei and the medics rush over to the gym Yassen left. He was not even a block down the road, but Yassen knew he got lucky. When he turned the corner, he unzipped the jacket he had on and took off his wig and placed them both into his gym bag. This was done in an area there there was no security cameras. Then yassen pulled out a spare duffle bag from his gym bag and transferred all his items to that before going back to his hotel room. He would dispose of those items a few blocks from the hotel in the dumpster.

When Yassen was halfway back to his hotel room, he received a call from Mark. Yassen answered his phone and spoke Russian as not to be overheard by the pedestrians nearby.

Hello?" Yassen answer.

"Mr. gregorovich, it me; Mark. I just wanted to call you and inform you that the boy just woke up. Everything is still good here. Dr. Morandi is currently evaluating the boys level of consciousness and his vitals are back to normal and consistent - including his temperature. Thought you might like to know that since its been eight days since you began you latest job. Also, Dr. Morandi and I was not sure if you wanted us to tell Alex that you are the one in change here..." Mark trailed off towards the end of his statement and waited for Yassen to respond.

"I'm aware of how it has been since I have left my home Mark. I can also tell you that I will be heading back this evening. Don't inform Alex as to who I am just yet. You should hear from me soon." Yassen hung up on his phone and continued walking back to his hotel. When Yassen arrived back into his room, he would call Peter's partner and inform the man that his colleague was in fact dead.

* * *

AN: The reason why it has taken me a week to write this much is because I had to complete my medical terminology I finals, begin my medical terminology II class, complete my physics midterm. Take a math exam that involved dividing functions and simplifying rational expressions in pre calculus. And took six quizzes and one general exam. Oh and did I mention that I worked for 30 hours and had to help take care of the suppose puppy my dad brought home late Sunday night? Yeah... I was busy this past week and will be just as busy next week for different reasons.

Any errors in this chapter are therefore my own. This will be edited at a later day along with chapters two, three and four. This chapter did not turn out the way I wanted t to at first. Hopefully you will like it still!

The next chapter will discuss Yassen's reaction to the phone he received towards the end of this chapter and how it affects him as a result when he returns back to his home. I decided to also include the flashback in that chapter as well. I feel like the murder itself is more than enough to read on its own. I certainly wrote enough on it!

Please review! It helps a lot! I will be sending PMs to those who have reviewed in the last week over the next few days. Be on the lookout for those as well. Should I do a one-shot of the meeting about the aconite drug exchange between the drug dealer and Yassen? Let me know what your opinions are about this!

Oh, and one more thing. As far as dental care for the unconcious patient goes, I will have to explain it in the next chapter. Sorry about that!

- Little-Dhamphir


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